Brain Floss: James Callahan

October’s guest typographer is the creator of Barf Comics, Nowhere Skateboards, and many, many other projects. He’s so prolific he practically vomits artwork during his 60 to 70 hour workweeks. Get to know the man behind this issue’s vile style.

So you make comics, cartoons, soap operas, skate videos and have a skate company. Anything else you’d like to ads to that mellow nine-to-five gig?

Well, you know record covers, art shows, T-shirt designs. I’m just trying to cover the earth in my trash. On top of that I try to find some time build skate spots, hang with my dog in the woods, and oh yeah, actual skating. That happens every once in a while too.

Digital versus hand drawn?

Hand drawn will never be replaced. The computer is a tool, and it can be brought in at any stage, but if you don’t have a foundation to put it on, it’s always going to produce disposable garbage. I had a very smart professor once who told me that the more you do to an image before you put it in the computer, the easier the total process. There isn’t a single day that I don’t think about that.

Comics versus graphic Novels?

Same diffy. One’s just a fancy name to shake off the stigmas associated with the other. It’s ridiculous that people’s brains work that way, but it’s true. Readers who would never touch a comic book are somehow accepting of the graphic novel. Dummies have a hard time seeing what something is until you give it the right name.